LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
INVENTOR 


9  AJI  9 


Copyright  1928  by  B.  G.  FOSTER 


FOREWORD. 

Rarely  indeed  does  an  invention  come  as  a  brilliant 
flash  and  in  perfect  form  from  the  brain  of  its  creator. 
Like  other  things  in  this  world  it  is  ordinarily  a  process 
of  evolution.  When  one  looks  upon  Benjamin  Franklin's 
printing  press  whose  platen  was  laboriously  raised  and 
lowered  by  a  hand  screw  and  compares  it  with  the  modern 
high  speed  machines  that  turn  out  faster  than  the  eye 
can  follow,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  copies  of  the  modern 
bulky  newspapers,  when  one  looks  upon  the  crude  little 
implements  that  sent  by  wire  from  Baltimore  to  Wash- 
ington the  momentous  question  "What  hath  God 
wrought  ?",  and  compares  with  them  the  subtle  instru- 
ments that  transmit  vocal  and  visual  messages  instantly 
to  the  far-flung  parts  of  the  world,  one  is  lost  in  wonder 
and  admiration  at  the  mechanical  progress  that  man  has 
made  in  the  last  few  decades.  And  yet  it  has  always  been 
a  gradual  development.  Without  the  first  step,  there 
could  have  been  no  last  step.  The  initial  milestone  must 
be  passed  before  the  thousandth  can  be  reached.  And 
were  it  not  for  the  lowly  genesis  there  could  never  be  full 
fruition. 

All  honor  then  to  those  who  dared  the  self-satisfied 
world,  who  dared  the  gibes,  the  ridicule,  the  good  natured 
raillery  of  their  contented  neighbors  and  friends,  to  give 
to  humanity  a  new  line  of  thought  or  opened  a  new  field 
of  endeavor,  whether  time  proved  it  to  be  good,  bad  or 
indifferent.  For  of  course  many  of  the  ideas  and  schemes 
on  which  inventors  have  built  high  hopes,  which  in  their 
imaginations  were  to  revolutionize  the  world  and  they 


that  live  therein,  proved  to  be  fallacious  or  were  so  far 
in  advance  of  their  times  as  to  be  then  useless. 

No  wheat  is  produced  without  chaff.  Indeed  chaff  is 
as  vital  to  the  production  of  wheat  as  wheat  is  to  the 
support  and  comfort  of  mankind.  And  then  it  is  a  re- 
markable fact  that  those  things  which  have  been  once 
classed  as  worthless  waste,  something  discarded  as  utter- 
ly useless,  in  time  become  most  valuable  assets.  The 
cotton  seed  that  was  once  the  bane  of  the  cotton  ginner 
is  now  a  most  useful  product.  The  fumes  from  the  coke 
ovens  that  once  permeated  the  air  with  obnoxious  odors 
are  now  carefully  saved  for  the  valuable  constituents 
therein  contained.  The  coal  tar  residue,  that  horrible 
sticky  mess  that  was  once  the  despair  of  all  producers  has 
been  found  to  have  locked  in  its  heart  and  in  everlasting 
form  the  gorgeous  hues  of  the  sunset,  the  essence  of  Cey- 
lon and  the  drugs  of  far  Cathay. 

Experience  has  shown  that  the  desire  to  invent,  to 
do  something  novel,  to  give  to  the  world  what  no  one  has 
ever  had  to  give  before,  is  ingrained  in  the  human  soul. 
It  is  that  innate  desire  and  the  resolve  to  put  it  into  ef- 
fect that  so  greatly  differentiates  humanity  from  the 
brute  creation.  Nor  does  that  longing  ever  seem  to  en- 
tirely leave  one.  It  may  be  submerged  and  held  back  by 
adverse  conditions,  but  when  the  opportunity  affords,  it 
rises  to  the  surface  and  when  the  secret  longing  coupled 
with  the  bravery,  demands  one  to  cast  the  die  and  launch 
the  scheme  upon  a  waiting  world,  the  United  States  Pa- 
tent Office,  that  great  repository  of  human  endeavor  and 
progress,  becomes  the  recipient  of  the  addition  to  the  field 
of  knowledge,  in  the  form  of  an  application  for  patent. 

It  is  not  strange  then  to  find  among  the  Patent  Office 
records  the  ideas  and  schemes  of  hundreds  of  thousands, 


who  have  made  efforts  to  subscribe  to  the  material  ad- 
vancement of  the  world.  No  one  not  familiar  with  those 
records  has  any  conception  of  the  ingenuity  and  original- 
ity that  has  in  times  past  been  displayed  by  this  army  of 
unknown  thinkers.  It  is  a  fact  that  no  matter  how 
strange  a  scheme,  no  matter  how  brilliant  an  idea  may  be 
developed  today,  the  germ  of  it  in  some  form,  crude  and 
impracticable  perhaps,  can  be  found  tucked  away  in  some 
obscure  and  perhaps  ancient  patent  document,  there 
awaiting  modern  conditions  and  developments  to  make  it 
useful  to  mankind. 

And  so  it  has  occurred  to  the  writer  that  a  somewhat 
striking  example  of  the  foregoing  is  found  in  the  early 
ingenuity  and  inventive  work  of  no  less  a  person  than 
Abraham  Lincoln,  Sixteenth  President  of  the  United 
States. 


m 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://www.archive.org/details/abrahamlincolninOOfost 


Abraham  Lincoln, 
Inventor 


Abraham  Lincoln,   Inventor 


i. 

The  year  was  1831,  and  it  was  spring.  The  brown 
prairies  of  Illinois  were  being  rapidly  freed  from  their 
heavy  coverlet  of  snow.  Each  little  rivulet  was  adding 
its  tribute  of  snow  water  to  some  larger  stream  and  each 
stream  was  ponring  its  collection  into  the  neighboring 
river.  And  there  on  the  bank  of  the  Sangamon,  sweeping 
by  in  full  flood,  labored  a  band  of  hnsky  yonng  frontiers- 
men. During  the  long  winter  months  they  had  looked  for- 
ward to  the  opening  of  spring,  for  it  meant  the  beginning 
of  a  great  adventure. 

Denton  Offutt,  local  trader  and  promoter  had  engaged 
these  young  huskies  to  take  a  boat-load  of  produce  down 
to  New  Orleans.  Aside  from  the  attractiveness  of  fifty 
cents  a  day  pay  and  a  bonus  of  $60.  was  the  opportunity 
of  getting  beyond  the  restricted  confines  of  their  home 
country  and  of  seeing  the  great  outside  world.  Offutt,  a 
great  promiser,  but  a  poor  producer,  had  agreed  to  have 
ready  that  spring  a  boat  fully  equipped  and  fitted  for  the 
voyage.  Brit  like  so  much  of  Offutt 's  offerings,  when  the 
somewhat  motley  crew  appeared  to  embark,  there  was 
no  boat — nothing  to  embark  upon.  Disappointment  no 
doubt  reigned  supreme.  All  the  plans,  all  the  anticipated 
enjoyments  talked  over  before  the  fireplaces  in  the  log 
cabins  those  long  winter  evenings  had  gone  to  smash. 

Was  the  expedition  abandoned  and  did  an  angry  but 
secretly  heart-sick  group  of  young  men  plod  their  way 


back  home  across  the  muddy  prairies?  Not  at  all.  If 
11 Denny' '  by  his  own  industry  wouldn't  live  up  to  his 
agreement,  they'd  help  him  to.  And  so  with  axe  and  adz 
and  saw  and  maul  a  crude  but  ample  flat  boat  took  form. 
Its  possibilities,  its  seaworthiness  and  all  the  mighty 
problems  of  ship  building  were  no  doubt  seriously  dis- 
cussed and  determined  upon  before  the  campfire  after 
the  day's  labor  was  over.  In  any  event,  the  boat  seems  to 
have  proven  entirely  satisfactory  to  the  delinquent  Of- 
futt,  for  it  was  duly  launched,  it  successfully  floated  and 
was  loaded  with  his  produce  and  wares. 

On  the  morning  of  the  departure  the  little  settlement 
of  New  Salem  nestling  on  a  high  bluff  of  the  Sangamon 
Eiver,  below  the  scene  of  the  boat  building  operations, 
awoke  to  its  usual  simple  and  somewhat  humdrum  tasks. 
But  here  was  an  extraordinary  event.  A  rough  but  ready 
and  deeply  weighted  argosy  came  ponderously  into  view, 
riding  the  swollen  river  and  guided  by  poles  and  steering 
oar  in  the  hands  of  three  young  fresh  water  sailors. 
Quite  naturally  word  of  the  novel  sight  spread  and  the 
inhabitants  collected  to  gaze  on  the  passage  of  this  rare 
craft  bound  on  to  the  turn  of  the  river  and  the  unknown 
world  beyond.  Alas  they  were  to  gaze  longer  than  they 
expected. 

At  New  Salem  the  Sangamon  Eiver  had  been  harnessed 
to  a  grist  mill  and  consequently  across  the  stream  had 
been  thrown  a  rough  dam  of  stones  over  which  the  river 
in  its  flood  stage  merrily  and  swiftly  passed.  Whether 
the  navigators  forgot  or  were  unaware  of  the  barrier  or 
whether  they  "figgered"  there  was  enough  water  to  carry 
them  over  the  obstruction,  history  sayeth  not.  But 
history  doth  say  that  when  the  dam  was  reached  by  the 
boat,  the  boat  was  also  reached  by  the  dam.    Hence  the 


hardy  but  not  particularly  skilled  mariners  were  soon 
concerned  with  the  fact  that  their  vessel  had  slid  partly 
over  and  there  lodged.  Here  was  indeed  a  sight  for  the 
villagers  and  a  dilemma  for  the  sailors.  Inspection  show- 
ed that  the  bow  was  well  over  the  dam  and  out  of  water 
while  the  stern  was  above  the  dam  with  the  wavelets 
dancing  over  the  rim  and  the  racing  water  boiling  men- 
acingly along  the  gunwales. 

It  was  probably  not  the  first  time  these  hardy  young 
fellows  had  been  suddenly  placed  on  their  own  resources. 
And  while  all  might  have  been  equal  to  the  occasion,  as 
usual  in  time  of  crisis  one  quickly  came  into  commanding 
prominence.  A  long,  lean,  gaunt  young  giant  who  was 
later  to  become  well  known  to  the  citizens  of  New  Salem 
under  the  name  of  "Abe"  Lincoln,  took  charge  of  the 
situation. 

The  following  is  a  contemporary  word  picture  of  this 
young  man. 

"He  was  a  tall,  gaunt  young  man  dressed  in  a  suit  of 
blue  homespun  jeans,  consisting  of  a  roundabout  jacket, 
waistcoat  and  breeches  which  came  to  within  about  four 
inches  of  his  feet.  The  latter  were  encased  in  rawhide 
boots." 

A  hasty  survey  showed  no  time  was  to  be  lost  or  the 
boat  would  fill  and  sink  with  all  its  cargo.  Hailing  the 
villagers  on  shore  (among  whom  was  the  now  anxious 
OfTutt)  a  boat  was  launched  and  brought  alongside  the 
stranded  vessel.  Into  this  was  piled  package  and  box  and 
bale,  leaving  however,  the  barrels  and  casks.  Thus  light- 
ened the  boat  still  tetering  uncomfortably  on  the  rocks, 
was  however  temporarily  safe.  Then  came  the  problem 
of  removing  the  water  and  getting  the  boat  over  the  dam. 
And  here  was  displayed  the  ingenuity  of  the  gaunt  young 


unknown  stripling  who  had  directed  and  worked  power- 
fully in  unloading  the  craft. 

The  heavy  barrels  left  in  the  boat  were  all  rolled  to 
the  bow  that  projected  beyond  the  dam  and  above  the 
water.  The  front  end  thus  weighted  swung  downwardly, 
and  the  rear  end  thereby  lightened,  rose  safely  above  the 
flood  that  raced  around  it,  while  all  the  water  shipped  into 
the  boat  over  the  stern  promptly  followed  the  barrels 
into  the  bow.  Then  "Abe"  according  to  the  story,  bor- 
rowed a  goodly  sized  auger  from  the  blacksmith  at  New 
Salem  and  proceeded  to  bore  a  hole  through  the  bottom 
of  the  bow.  The  water  that  had  run  in  made  haste  to  flow 
out  through  the  aperture  thus  produced  and  resume  its 
journey  to  the  sea.  After  the  last  departing  drops 
trickled  through  the  hole  "Abe"  plugged  it  up  and  with 
the  aid  of  the  water  now  pushing  against  the  upturned 
stern,  it  was  an  easy  task  to  slide  the  boat  on  over  the 
dam,  bring  her  to  shore,  reload  and  continue  the  journey. 

Very  little  is  known  of  the  details  of  that  long  trip 
down  the  Mississippi  to  New  Orleans.  It  probably  did 
not  differ  greatly  from  thousands  of  others  of  a  corre- 
sponding character.  Mark  Twain's  stories  dealing  with 
such  life  on  the  Mississippi  have  become  an  immortal 
part  of  the  literature  of  the  nation.  No  doubt  snags  and 
shifting  sand  bars  were  encountered  and  beginning  with 
his  experience  at  the  Eutledge  mill  dam  at  New  Salem, 
the  problem  of  safely  and  satisfactorily  navigating  the 
shallow  inland  waters  of  the  country  evidently  impressed 
itself  on  young  Lincoln. 

II. 

We  pass  on  to  a  period  some  seventeen  years  later. 
The  Hon.  Abraham  Lincoln  of  Springfield,  Sangamon 


Necessity  The  Mother  of  Invention 


County,  Illinois,  had  been  elected  to  the  National  House 
of  Representatives  and  had  taken  his  seat  in  Congress. 
The  first  session  was  over  and  he  determined  to  return 
to  his  home  by  way  of  Niagara  Falls  and  the  Great  Lakes. 
The  vessel  on  which  he  journeyed  apparently  was  making 
a  normal  and  uneventful  voyage  along  the  lake  until  she 
had  the  misfortune  to  run  aground. 

It  must  have  carried  Mr.  Lincoln's  thoughts  back  to 
his  early  experiences — the  voyage  down  the  Sangamon, 
the  mishap  on  the  dam  at  New  Salem,  and  probably  other 
near  wrecks  and  delays  on  the  shifting  and  uncharted 
mud  banks  of  the  Illinois  and  the  great  Mississippi.  It 
was  not  strange  then  that  the  Captain's  endeavors  to  re- 
lease his  vessel  from  the  bar  on  which  she  struck  was  of 
deep  interest  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  Planks  and  empty  barrels 
were  placed  under  and  around  her  and  after  much  delay 
the  boat  was  finally  backed  off. 

Through  all  the  preceding  years  perhaps,  the  problem 
had  been  vaguely  revolving  in  his  mind — this  constant 
difficulty  of  boats  running  aground  with  the  consequent 
troubles  and  delays,  and  the  crude  methods  and  make- 
shifts used  in  getting  them  again  afloat.  And  after  all 
these  years,  apparently  no  definite  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem was  available.  The  lake  captain  of  1848  was  no 
better  off  then  Capt.  "Abe",  the  Mississippi  boatman  of 
twenty  years  before. 

Something  ought  to  be  done  and  why  was  not  he  the 
man  to  show  the  way  ?  And  Mr.  Lincoln  decided  to  do  it. 
The  next  chapter  of  the  story  is  best  given  in  the  words 
of  his  law  partner,  W.  H.  Herndon,  of  Springfield,  Illinois. 

"Continual  thinking  on  the  subject  of  lifting  vessels 
over  sand  bars  and  other  obstructions  in  the  water  sug- 
gested to  him  the  idea  of  inventing  an  apparatus  for  the 


purpose.  Using  the  principle  involved  in  the  operation 
he  had  just  witnessed  (the  release  of  the  lake  boat),  his 
plan  was  to  attach  a  kind  of  bellows  on  each  side  of  the 
hull  of  the  craft  just  below  the  water  line,  and,  by  an  odd 
system  of  ropes  and  pulleys,  whenever  the  keel  grated 
on  the  sand  these  bellows  were  to  be  filled  with  air  and 
thus  buoyed  up,  the  vessel  was  expected  to  float  clear  of 
the  shoal.  On  reaching  home  he  at  once  set  to  work  to 
demonstrate  the  feasibility  of  his  plan.  Walter  Davis, 
a  mechanic  having  a  shop  near  our  office,  granted  him 
the  use  of  his  tools  and  likewise  assisted  him  in  making 
the  model  of  a  miniature  vessel  with  the  arrangement  as 
above  described.  Lincoln  manifested  ardent  interest  in 
it.  Occasionally  he  would  bring  the  model  in  the  office, 
and  while  whittling  on  it  would  descant  on  its  merits  and 
the  revolution  it  was  destined  to  work  in  steamboat  navi- 
gation. Although  I  regarded  the  thing  as  impracticable, 
I  said  nothing,  probably  out  of  respect  for  Lincoln's  well- 
known  reputation  as  a  boatman.  The  model  was  sent  or 
taken  by  him  to  Washington,  where  a  patent  was  issued, 
but  the  invention  was  never  applied  to  any  vessel,  so  far 
as  I  ever  learned,  and  the  threatened  revolution  in  steam- 
boat architecture  and  navigation  never  came  to  pass." 

The  reason  for  the  production  of  the  model  was  the 
requirement  of  the  Patent  Office  at  that  time  that  an  ap- 
plication for  patent  must  be  accompanied  by  a  model  of 
the  invention. 

So  it  is  not  strange  that  Mr.  Lincoln  on  returning  to 
Washington  for  the  second  term  of  Congress  took  the 
model  with  him,  and  we  have  the  following  record  from 
Z.  C.  Eobbins  of  Washington,  D.  C,  the  attorney  who 
represented  him  before  the  Patent  Office. 

' i  He  walked  into  my  office  one  morning  with  a  model  of 
a  western  steamboat  under  his  arm.  After  a  friendly 


$o  tl)t  Commissioner  of  fpattnta. 


The  Petition 


«f^3C^l. 


presents. 


/ 


,_,     ^   </^*^^-^^l^     jf, 


£ 


Respectfully 

Tfaat  jour  petitioner 


%*-4.     invented,    »     -***: 


which  ha*  not,  as  A<    verily  believe*  been  heretofore  used  or  known,  and  that    be 

i'-J  desirous  that  Letters  Patent  of  the  United  States  may  be  granted  to  -£«»-there- 
far,  securing  to  X*«-and  to  -»«--'  legal  representatives,  the  exclusive  right  of  making 
and  using,  and  of  vending  to  other;  the  privilege  to  make  or  use,  the  same,  agreeably 
to  the  provisions  of  the  Acts  of  Congress  in  that  case  made  and  provided,  *"*■ 
having  paid  &**  v<£.  dollars  into  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  and  complied 
with  other  provisions  of  the  said  Acts. 

And>'«<-      hereby  authorise*  and  empowers     fii^    Agent  and  Attorney,  Z.  C 
Robbi.vs,  t«  alter  or  modify  the  within  specification  and  claim  as  he  may  deem  expe- 
dient, ami  to  receive     '■'•-'  patent ;  and  also  to  receive  back  any  moneys  which    />-«- 
nfay  be  entitled  to  withdraw,  and  to  receipt  for  the  same. 


-<. 


U  n  ~*z 


/K-dAl~9&**- 


4*jf.cl*2~~<£** 


*£ 


On  this  ♦    S*  "         day of  ^ «-+*,/ V>> ^  f 

before  the  subscriber,  a   & 'cJ  Q&***.   in  and  for  the  said  C^  i  ,  ^X    personally 
appeared  the  within  named  -   &is-\  *v^*-»^-^„.   *~J<L*  -K.c^tf^ 
and  made  solemn   #-**^£       according  to  law,  that  sC     &Z<le  ,^^  /%£***&* 
to  be  the  original  and  first  inventor    of  the  within  described     *  »  » «^«*">  .?  *  <■  -*  v» 

■%-*^a<z^.  <L  ^_        -~-   n  %j0rjt\  thai  a^    <=*f#*i-«z    not  know  or  believe 

(hat  the  same  has  been  before  used  or  known ;  and  that    *£<     <.^  ^citizen    of  the 

United  States. 


Mr.  Lincoln's  Petition  For  A  Patent 

(Courtesy  of  The  United  States  Patent  Office) 


greeting  he  placed  his  model  on  my  office  table  and  pro- 
ceeded to  explain  the  principles  embodied  therein  and 
what  he  believed  to  be  his  own  invention,  and  which,  if 
new,  he  desired  to  secure  by  Letters  Patent.  During  my 
former  residence  in  St.  Louis,  I  had  made  myself  thor- 
oughly familiar  with  everything  appertaining  to  the  con- 
struction and  equipment  of  the  flat-bottomed  steamboats 
that  were  adapted  to  the  shallow  rivers  of  our  western 
and  southern  States,  and  therefore,  I  was  able  speedily  to 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  proposed  im- 
provement of  that  class  of  vessels  was  new  and  patent- 
able, and  I  so  informed  him.  Thereupon  he  instructed 
me  to  prepare  the  necessary  drawings  and  papers  and 
prosecute  an  application  for  a  patent  for  his  invention  at 
the  United  States  Patent  Office.  I  complied  with  his  in- 
structions and  in  due  course  of  proceedings  procured  for 
him  a  patent  that  fully  covered  all  the  distinguishing  fea- 
tures of  his  improved  steamboat." 

It  does  not  appear  that  Mr.  Lincoln  ever  made  any 
endeavor  to  exploit  his  invention  or  have  it  adopted  or 
even  tried  out  on  a  full  sized  vessel.  The  original  rec- 
ords of  the  patent  have  lain  undisturbed  among  the  files 
of  the  Patent  Office  for  eighty  years.  The  model  slum- 
bered on  the  shelves  until  the  manifold  inventive  activities 
of  the  present  generation  made  more  room  essential.  As 
a  consequence  the  large  assembly  of  old  models  was  dis- 
posed of  except  a  few  of  real  historical  value  that  have 
been  preserved  in  the  National  Museum  at  Washington. 
And  there  the  model  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  invention  is 
now  safely  treasured. 

III. 

The  year  of  1926  came  and  the  rivers  still  continued 
their  journeys  to  the  sea.    Steamers  still  plied,  though  in 


very  limited  numbers,  along  those  inland  waters  trav- 
ersed by  Abraham  Lincoln  a  century  ago.  Instead  of 
vessels  being  removed  from  shoals,  the  shoals  and  sand 
bars  have  been  dredged  away  and  thereby  removed  from 
the  paths  of  vessels,  and  Mr.  Lincoln's  contribution  to 
navigation,  if  ever  practicable,  would  appear  to  have  be- 
come obsolete. 

And  yet  there  is  the  germ  of  a  practically  useful  scheme 
for  modern  purposes  to  be  found  therein.  It  is  now  the 
common  practice  to  lighten  and  raise  sunken  ships  by  air 
pontoons  lashed  to  their  sides.  Twice  (in  1926  and  1928) 
have  our  naval  submarines  that  have  had  the  misfortune 
to  have  been  sunk,  been  brought  again  to  the  surface 
and  salvaged.  This  has  in  each  instance  been  made  pos- 
sible by  the  attachment  of  great  air  chambers  or  pon- 
toons to  opposite  sides  of  the  sunken  vessel.  Into  these 
chambers  air  was  pumped  and  sufficient  buoyancy  thus 
produced  to  raise  the  vessel  from  its  ocean  bed  to  the 
surface  and  permit  it  to  be  towed  to  a  safe  refuge  for  re- 
pair and  reconditioning.  It  has  been  proposed  to  supply 
war  vessels  with  permanent  chambers,  familiarly  known 
as  "blisters",  on  the  sides  of  their  hulls.  These  cham- 
bers may  be  used  for  storage  purposes,  or  they  can  be 
flooded,  or  air  can  be  pumped  into  them  to  buoy  up  one 
side  or  the  other  and  thus  cause  a  "list"  or  tilting  of  the 
ship  to  elevate  the  guns. 

It  may  seem  a  far  cry  to  these  modern  developments, 
and  yet  there  is  to  be  found  in  the  modern  engineering 
field  of  ship  salvaging  operations  the  fundamental 
thought  underlying  the  seemingly  impracticable  scheme 
proposed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  so  many  years  ago, — the  buoy- 
ing up  of  a  vessel  by  air  chambers  placed  along  the  op- 
posite sides  of  her  hull. 


■J. 

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IV. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  in  conclusion  to  show  how  deeply 
Abraham  Lincoln  must  have  even  in  later  years  pondered 
the  subject  of  inventions  and  their  relation  to  the  advance 
of  the  human  race.  Temporarily  withdrawn  from  politi- 
cal activities  in  1860  and  finding  it  necessary  to  seek 
some  method  of  securing  revenue  for  a  livelihood,  he  de- 
termined to  try  the  lecture  platform.  He  thereupon  pre- 
pared and  delivered  at  Springfield,  Illinois  in  1860  a  lec- 
ture entitled  "Discoveries  and  Inventions. ' '  It  did  not 
prove  a  financial  success  but  it  is  interesting  as  showing 
much  research  and  especially  it  indicates  that  he  must 
have  had  a  very  complete  knowledge  of  the  Bible.  While 
the  lecture  as  preserved  to  us  appears  to  be  incomplete, 
that  known  is  as  follows  (From  The  Journal  of  the  Pat- 
ent Office  Society)  : 

"DISCOVERIES  AND  INVENTIONS" 

"All  creation  is  a  mine,  and  every  man  a  miner. 

i '  The  whole  earth,  and  all  within  it,  upon  it,  and  round 
about  it,  including  himself,  in  his  physical,  moral,  and 
intellectual  nature,  and  his  susceptibilities,  are  the  infi- 
nitely various  "leads"  from  which,  man,  from  the  first, 
was  to  dig  out  his  destiny. 

"In  the  beginning,  the  mine  was  unopened,  and  the 
miner  stood  naked,  and  knowledgeless,  upon  it. 

"Fishes,  birds,  beasts,  and  creeping  things,  are  not 
miners,  but  feeders  and  lodgers  merely.  Beavers  build 
houses ;  but  they  build  them  in  nowise  differently,  or  bet- 
ter now,  than  they  did,  five  thousand  years  ago.  Ants 
and  honey  bees  provide  food  for  winter;  but  just  in  the 
same  way  they  did,  when  Solomon  referred  the  sluggard 
to  them  as  patterns  of  prudence. 


' '  Man  is  not  the  only  animal  who  labors ;  but  he  is  the 
only  one  who  improves  his  workmanship.  This  improve- 
ment he  effects  by  Discoveries  and  Inventions.  His  first 
important  discovery  was  the  fact  that  he  was  naked ;  and 
his  first  invention  was  the  fig-leaf  apron.  This  simple 
article,  the  apron,  made  of  leaves,  seems  to  have  been  the 
origin  of  clothing — the  one  thing  for  which  nearly  half 
of  the  toil  and  care  of  the  hnman  race  has  ever  since  been 
expended.  The  most  important  improvement  ever  made 
in  connection  with  clothing,  was  the  invention  of  spin- 
ning and  weaving.  The  spinning  jenny,  and  power  loom, 
invented  in  modern  times,  thongh  great  improvements, 
do  not,  as  inventions,  rank  with  the  ancient  arts  of  spin- 
ning and  weaving.  Spinning  and  weaving  brought  into 
the  department  of  clothing  such  abundance  and  variety 
of  material.  Wool,  the  hair  of  several  species  of  animals, 
hemp,  flax,  cotton,  silk,  and  perhaps  other  articles,  were 
all  suited  to  it,  affording  garments  not  only  adapted  to 
wet  and  dry,  heat  and  cold,  but  also  susceptible  of  high 
degrees  of  ornamental  finish.  Exactly  when,  or  where, 
spinning  and  weaving  originated  is  not  known.  At  the 
first  interview  of  the  Almighty  with  Adam  and  Eve,  after 
the  fall,  He  made  " coats  of  skins,  and  clothed  them" 
(Genesis  iii:  21). 

"The  Bible  makes  no  other  allusion  to  clothing,  before 
the  flood.  Soon  after  the  deluge  Noah's  two  sons  covered 
him  with  a  garment;  but  of  what  material  the  garment 
was  made  is  not  mentioned  (Genesis  ix:  23). 

"Abraham  mentions  "thread' '  in  such  connection  as  to 
indicate  that  spinning  and  weaving  were  in  use  in  his 
day  (Genesis  xiv:  23),  and  soon  after,  reference  to  the 
art  is  frequently  made.  "Linen  breeches"  are  men- 
tioned (Exodus  xxviii:  42),  and  it  is  said  "all  the  women 
that  were  wise-hearted  did  spin  with  their  hands' '  (Exo- 

10 


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Original  Draft  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Patent  Claims 

Note  the  endorsement  of  payment  of  the  Patent  Office  for  "$30 
gold  received." 

(Courtesy  of  The  United  States  Patent  Office) 


dus  xxxv:  25),  and,  "all  the  women  whose  heart  stirred 
them  up  in  wisdom  spun  goats'  hair"  (Exodus  xxxv:  26). 
The  work  of  the  "weaver"  is  mentioned  (Exodus  xxxv: 
35).  In  the  book  of  Job,  a  very  old  book,  date  not  exactly 
known,  the  "weavers'  shuttle"  is  mentioned. 

"The  above  mention  of  "thread"  by  Abraham  is  the 
oldest  recorded  allusion  to  spinning  and  weaving ;  and  it 
was  made  about  two  thousand  years  after  the  creation  of 
man,  and  now,  near  four  thousand  years  ago.  Profane 
authors  think  these  arts  originated  in  Egypt ;  and  this  is 
not  contradicted,  or  made  improbable,  by  anything  in  the 
Bible;  for  the  allusion  of  Abraham,  mentioned,  was  not 
made  until  after  he  had  sojourned  in  Egypt. 

' '  The  discovery  of  the  properties  of  iron,  and  the  mak- 
ing of  iron  tools,  must  have  been  among  the  earliest  of 
important  discoveries  and  inventions.  We  can  scarcely 
conceive  the  possibility  of  making  much  of  anything  else, 
without  the  use  of  iron  tools.  Indeed,  an  iron  hammer 
must  have  been  very  much  needed  to  make  the  first  iron 
hammer  with.  A  stone  probably  served  as  a  substitute. 
How  could  the  "gopher  wood"  for  the  Ark  have  been 
gotten  out  with  an  axe  ?  It  seems  to  me  an  axe,  or  a  mir- 
acle, was  indispensable.  Corresponding  with  the  prime 
necessity  for  iron,  we  find  at  least  one  very  early  notice 
of  it.  Tubal-Cain  was  "an  instructor  of  every  artificer 
in  brass  and  iron"  (Genesis  iv:  22).  Tubal-Cain  was  the 
seventh  in  descent  from  Adam;  and  his  birth  was  about 
one  thousand  years  before  the  flood.  After  the  flood,  fre- 
quent mention  is  made  of  iron,  and  instruments  made  of 
iron.  Thus  "instrument  of  iron"  at  Numbers  xxxv:  16; 
"bedstead  of  iron"  at  Deuteronomy  iii:  11;  "the  iron 
furnace"  at  Deuteronomy  iv:  20,  and  "iron  tool"  at 
Deuteronomy  xxvii :  5.  At  Deuteronomy  xix :  5,  very  dis- 
tinct mention  of  '  *  the  ax  to  cut  down  the  tree ' '  is  made ; 

li 


and  also  at  Deuteronomy  viii :  9,  the  promised  land  is  de- 
scribed as  "a  land  whose  stones  are  iron,  and  out  of 
whose  hills  thou  mayest  dig  brass.' '  From  the  somewhat 
frequent  mention  of  brass  in  connection  with  iron,  it  is 
not  improbable  that  brass — perhaps  what  we  now  call 
copper — was  used  by  the  ancients  for  some  of  the  same 
purposes  as  iron. 

"Transportation — the  removal  of  person  and  goods 
from  place  to  place — would  be  an  early  object,  if  not  a 
necessity,  with  man.  By  his  natural  powers  of  locomo- 
tion, and  without  much  assistance  from  discovery  and  in- 
vention, he  could  move  himself  about  with  considerable 
facility;  and  even,  could  carry  small  burthens  with  him. 
But  very  soon  he  would  wish  to  lessen  the  labor,  while  he 
might,  at  the  same  time,  extend,  and  expedite  the  busi- 
ness. For  this  object,  wheel-carriages,  and  water-crafts 
— wagons  and  boats — are  the  most  important  inventions. 
The  use  of  the  wheel  and  axle  has  been  so  long  known, 
that  it  is  difficult,  without  reflection,  to  estimate  it  at  its 
true  value.  The  oldest  recorded  allusion  to  the  wheel 
and  axle  is  the  mention  of  a  "chariot"  (Genesis  xli:  43). 
This  was  in  Egypt,  upon  the  occasion  of  Joseph  being 
made  governor  by  Pharaoh.  It  was  about  twenty-five 
hundred  years  after  the  creation  of  Adam.  That  the 
chariot  then  mentioned  was  a  wheel-carriage  drawn  by 
animals  is  sufficiently  evidenced  by  the  mention  of  char- 
iot wheels  (Exodus  xiv:  25),  and  the  mention  of  chariots 
in  connection  with  horses  in  the  same  chapter,  verses  9 
and  23.    So  much,  at  present,  for  land  transportation. 

' '  Now,  as  to  transportation  by  water,  I  have  concluded, 
without  sufficient  authority  perhaps,  to  use  the  term 
"boat"  as  a  general  name  for  all  water-craft.  The  boat 
is  indispensable  to  navigation.  It  is  not  probable  that 
the  philosophical  principle  upon  which  the  use  of  the 

12 


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9     ° 
<5    u 


boat  primarily  depends — to-wit,  the  principle,  that  any- 
thing will  float,  which  cannot  sink  without  displacing 
more  than  its  own  weight  of  water — was  known,  or  even 
thought  of,  before  the  first  boats  were  made.  The  sight 
of  a  crow  standing  on  a  piece  of  driftwood  floating  down 
the  swollen  current  of  a  creek  or  river,  might  well  enough 
suggest  the  specific  idea  to  a  savage,  that  he  could  him- 
self get  upon  a  log,  or  on  two  logs  tied  together,  and 
somehow  work  his  way  to  the  opposite  shore  of  the  same 
stream.  Such  a  suggestion,  so  taken,  would  be  the  birth 
of  navigation;  and  such,  not  improbably,  it  really  was. 
The  leading  idea  was  thus  caught;  and  whatever  came 
afterwards,  were  but  improvements  upon,  and  auxiliar- 
ies to,  it. 

1  i  As  man  is  a  land  animal,  it  might  be  expected  he  would 
learn  to  travel  by  land  somewhat  earlier  than  he  would 
by  water.  Still  the  crossing  of  streams,  somewhat  too 
deep  for  wading,  would  be  an  early  necessity  with  him. 
If  we  pass  by  the  Ark,  which  may  be  regarded  as  belong- 
ing rather  to  the  miraculous  than  to  human  invention,  the 
first  notice  we  have  of  water-craft  is  the  mention  of 
"ships"  by  Jacob  (Genesis  xlix:  13).  It  is  not  till  we 
reach  the  book  of  Isaiah  that  we  meet  with  the  mention 
of  "oars"  and  "sails." 

"As  man's  food — his  first  necessity — was  to  be  derived 
from  the  vegetation  of  the  earth,  it  was  natural  that  his 
first  care  should  be  directed  to  the  assistance  of  that  veg- 
etation. And  accordingly  we  find  that,  even  before  the 
fall,  the  man  was  put  into  the  garden  of  Eden  "to  dress 
it,  and  to  keep  it."  And  when  afterwards,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  first  transgression,  labor  was  imposed  on 
the  race,  as  a  penalty — a  curse — we  find  the  first  born 
man — the  first  heir  of  the  curse — was  "a  tiller  of  the 
ground."     This  was  the  beginning  of  agriculture;  and 

13 


although,  both  in  point  of  time,  and  of  importance,  it 
stands  at  the  head  of  all  branches  of  human  industry,  it 
has  derived  less  direct  advantage  from  Discovery  and 
Invention,  than  almost  any  other.  The  plow,  of  very 
early  origin;  and  reaping,  and  threshing  machines,  of 
modern  invention  are,  at  this  day,  the  principal  improve- 
ments in  agriculture.  And  even  the  oldest  of  these,  the 
plow,  could  not  have  been  conceived  of,  until  a  precedent 
conception  had  been  caught,  and  put  into  practice — I 
mean  the  conception,  or  idea,  of  substituting  other 
forces  in  nature,  for  man's  own  muscular  power.  These 
other  forces,  as  now  used,  are  principally,  the  strength  of 
animals,  and  the  power  of  the  wind,  of  running  streams, 
and  of  steam. 

' '  Climbing  upon  the  back  of  an  animal,  and  making  it 
carry  us,  might  not  occur  very  readily.  I  think  the  back 
of  the  camel  would  never  have  suggested  it.  It  was,  how- 
ever, a  matter  of  vast  importance.  The  earliest  instance 
of  it  mentioned,  is  when  "Abraham  rose  up  early  in  the 
morning,  and  saddled  his  ass"  (Genesis  xxii:  3),  prepar- 
atory to  sacrificing  Isaac  as  a  burnt-offering;  but  the  al- 
lusion to  the  saddle  indicates  that  riding  has  been  in  use 
some  time ;  for  it  is  quite  probable  they  rode  bare-backed 
awhile,  at  least,  before  they  invented  saddles. 

"The  idea,  being  once  conceived,  of  riding  one  species 
of  animals,  would  soon  be  extended  to  others.  Accord- 
ingly we  find  that  when  the  servant  of  Abraham  went  in 
search  of  a  wife  for  Isaac,  he  took  ten  camels  with  him ; 
and,  on  his  return  trip,  "Rebekah  arose,  and  her  dam- 
sels, and  they  rode  upon  the  camels,  and  followed  the 
man"  (Genesis  xxiv:  61). 

"The  horse,  too,  as  a  riding  animal,  is  mentioned  early. 
The  Red  Sea  being  safely  passed,  Moses  and  the  children 

14 


of  Israel  sang  to  the  Lord  "the  horse  and  his  rider  hath 
he  thrown  into  the  sea'"  (Exodus  xv:  1). 

"Seeing  that  animals  could  hear  man  upon  their  hacks, 
it  would  soon  occur  that  they  could  also  bear  other  bur- 
thens. Accordingly  we  find  that  Joseph's  brethren,  on 
their  first  visit  to  Egypt,  "laded  their  asses  with  the 
corn,  and  departed  thence"  (Genesis  xlii:  26). 

"Also  it  would  occur  that  animals  could  be  made  to 
draw  burthens  after  them,  as  well  as  to  bear  them  upon 
their  backs;  and  hence  plows  and  chariots  came  into  use 
early  enough  to  be  often  mentioned  in  the  books  of  Moses 
(Deuteronomy  xxii:  10;  Genesis  xli:  43;  xlvi:  29;  Exo- 
dus xiv:  25). 

"Of  all  the  forces  of  nature,  I  should  think  the  wind 
contains  the  largest  amount  of  motive  power — that  is, 
power  to  move  things.  Take  any  given  space  of  the 
earth's  surface — for  instance,  Illinois;  and  all  the  power 
exerted  by  all  the  men,  and  beasts,  and  running-water, 
and  steam,  over  and  upon  it,  shall  not  equal  the  one  hun- 
dredth part  of  what  is  exerted  by  the  blowing  of  the  wind 
over  and  upon  the  same  space.  And  yet  it  has  not,  so 
far  in  the  world's  history,  become  proportionately  valu- 
able as  a  motive  power.  It  is  applied  extensively,  and  ad- 
vantageously, to  sail-vessels  in  navigation.  Add  to  this 
a  few  wind-mills,  and  pumps,  and  you  have  about  all. 
That,  as  yet,  no  very  successful  mode  of  controlling,  and 
directing  the  wind,  has  been  discovered ;  and  that,  natur- 
ally, it  moves  by  fits  and  starts — now  so  gently  as  to 
scarcely  stir  a  leaf,  and  now  so  roughly  as  to  level  a  for- 
est— doubtless  have  been  the  insurmountable  difficulties. 
As  yet,  the  wind  is  an  untamed,  and  unharnessed  force ; 
and  quite  possibly  one  of  the  greatest  discoveries  here- 
after to  be  made,  will  be  the  taming  and  harnessing  of  it. 
That  the  difficulties  of  controlling  this  power  are  very 

15 


great  is  quite  evident  by  the  fact  that  they  have  already 
been  perceived,  and  struggled  with  more  than  three  thou- 
sand years ;  for  that  power  was  applied  to  sail-vessels,  at 
least  as  early  as  the  time  of  the  prophet  Isaiah. 

"In  speaking  of  running  streams,  as  a  motive  power,  I 
mean  its  application  to  mills  and  other  machinery  by 
means  of  the  "water  wheel' ' — a  thing  now  well  known, 
and  extensively  used;  but,  of  which,  no  mention  is  made 
in  the  Bible,  though  it  is  thought  to  have  been  in  use 
among  the  Romans.  (Am.  Ency.-Mill),  the  language  of 
the  Saviour  "Two  women  shall  be  grinding  at  the  mill, 
etc."  indicates  that,  even  in  the  populous  city  of  Jerusa- 
lem, at  that  day,  mills  were  operated  by  hand — having, 
as  yet  had  no  other  than  human  power  applied  to  them. 

"The  advantageous  use  of  Steam-power  is,  unquestion- 
ably, a  modern  discovery.  And  yet,  as  much  as  two 
thousand  years  ago  the  power  of  steam  was  not  only  ob- 
served, but  an  ingenious  toy  was  actually  made  and  put 
in  motion  by  it,  at  Alexandria  in  Egypt.  What  appears 
strange  is,  that  neither  the  inventor  of  the  toy,  nor  any 
one  else,  for  so  long  a  time  afterwards,  should  perceive 
that  steam  would  move  useful  machinery  as  well  as  a 
toy." 


16 


i* 


